This is the blog of Morten W. Petersen, aka. morphex in various places. I blog about my life, and what I find interesting and/or important. This is a personal blog without any editor or a lot of oversight so treat it as such. :)

Mad skillz

Core & Squats

Today I was working out at the gym (Elixia - it rocks), doing some warm up (it was a cardio really) first, and then something my gym calls "core" training, which is good for the back and stomach.

The core training has an exercise for the stomach where you sit on top of a ball and lean back; compared to sit-ups this exercise is a killer, I can feel the pain doing 50-75% of the sit-ups I usually do.

We have a guy called Peter who leads these core sessions, and they're always good fun. Towards the end of the session we do Simon says (gives me the feeling of being in gym class at school, only this time around I'm not chubby!), where the penalty for doing something wrong is the plank, which you can see here:

I've been reading about training on the internet lately, and one of the things people recommend is doing squats. So, after warm up & core, me and my brother went over to do some squats.

Man, were they hard to do. I think I did 60 or 70 KGs 3x8 (which is nothing, really) and it was killer. I'll have to try to do those more often. After that my legs were like gel and wobbly when I walked down to the showers, anyone seeing me could've mistaken me for Elvis. ;P

Working my way up

So, I was at the gym today - a new gym (Elixia) which I just became a member of. Decided to have some fun and put 220 lbs in the bench press. What would you know, I managed to lift that for 1 1/2 (12 lifts) set.

That's roughly 100 KGs, and I think I did 50 or 60 not so long ago, so almost doubled it then.. not bad.

On a good day

Threadmill time

Soon I'll head up to the gym, and try some running. Maybe 45 minutes, or more if I feel up for it.

It's been a while since I've run, but why not. Time to put some variation in the program and get a hard cardio going.

Been invited out the town tonight, but it usually ends up with too much drinking, so I'm skipping that this week. Going to the movies on Sunday instead, to see Sunshine with Smokie. Look forward to that.

[Later..] Wow, that was exhausting. Don't have any good running shoes either, so the feet are pretty sore. Anyway.. good with some variation.

2-split

Well, I had a trainer setup a program for me today at the gym, and ended up with a 2-split program instead of a 4-split. He knew a lot about things and I just agreed to whatever he said (with an ooh, aah and wow here and there). :)

Went through step one of that program today and I can feel it has taken its tole. My hands are still shaking a bit and it feels good.

So, it will probably be 3-4 training days a week, and then we'll see what the results are after a while. With proper eating and a structured program I feel confident that there'll be some progress.

Spinning

After starting at the new gym, I thought it would be a good idea to start making use of the things they offer.

So I've talked to one of the guys who worked there and we're going to setup a 4-split program. That is, from what I understand, a training program split over 4 days with various strength exercises.

Since I went out on Saturday I wasn't 'in the mood' for exercise on Sunday, so I doubled up with Monday and today instead. They offer spinning classes at the gym and I tried that before years ago (good workout) - so that was something to try again.

It worked out well, after 45 minutes of "Pulse Spin" I was soaked, and pretty tired. In the hours after working out I felt great, was having a real buzz and now it is getting back to normal again.

I'm wondering whether to try a 5-day workout during the week and then take weekends off. Not sure yet, but it might be worth a try.

Jocks with socks

More progress (who would've thought)

After a long weekend with too much to drink, today I've been grappling with a hang-over that just wouldn't let go. So I didn't feel like it, but went to the gym to work out.

Just coming out in fresh air and expecting to work out made me feel better, and what's even better, I even managed to increase the biceps lifting by 5 KGs today - so 3x10x40 KGs (on both hands combined). That's pretty good and it wasn't planned - it was just that a guy was using the 2.5 KG discs so I had to step it up. Felt great after working out (as usual) and the hangover is mostly gone now. Just a tingle and some nerves left.

I'm getting old though, the hangovers just keep getting longer and worse. Some day I'll learn. :)

But we had a good time. Friday was a date which ended up on a nightclub, Saturday was dinner, meeting and partying with Dave from WOW Webdesign and Sunday there was an English breakfast at a sportsbar downtown with a Carlsberg. I got a bit fatter, and my bank account got a bit slimmer.

With a little help, from some dudes

Yesterday there was great progress in the gym. Started chatting with some folks who were also doing weights and we helped each other out in the bench. Managed to do 10 x 60, 8 x 70, 7 x 70 in the bench press, which is a big improvement.

It helps to have someone back you up, so you can attempt lifting heavier weights. The prospect of getting jammed under heavy weights is daunting.

I run a program with a 30 minute warm-up on a step master or other cardio-vascular exercise, then 2-3 different exercises for strength. This is done every other day. Tried doing 2 days with exercise and one day off, but that was a bit too much in the long run - exercising every other day works and there's progress so I'll just stick with that.

There's a possibility of exercising too much as well, and combined with an at times stressful job it is important to not overdo it. I've gone into that trap before and exercised too much, but at the time I wasn't aware you could get too much exercise so I thought it was something wrong with my diet. Lesson learned.

A structured, stable program with exercise every other day and eating well is doing the trick.. I feel generally up-beat and productive when working as well - that hasn't always been the case.

Finally some progress

I've been struggling for some time to increase the amount of weights I bench press but today there was progress. Going from 60 kilos 3x8 I'm now able to do 3x10 and think it should be possible to go 3x12 and 3x15 in not too long.

I think lack of progress earlier might be related to technique, got some tips from a big guy a week ago that helped me use the rights muscles for lifting.

I don't know what my max lift capability is, in any case, there's a long way to go (see world records)

Gaining strength

Lately I've been pushing to lift heavier weights and putting more resistance on the apparatuses in the gym. For a long time the focus was to just keep on exercising regularly and loosing weight, but now I don't have that many kilos left before it is time to stop loosing weight.

So I've been making sure to get enough proteins and start gaining strength and muscles. This morning I had a fiber-rich cereal breakfast and 4 hours later a 4-egg-milk-banana-vanilla-chocolate shake before going to the gym. 4 hours after the shake I had half a pizza and then 4 hours later the rest of the pizza.

The cool thing about the pizza I'm eating is that it has a lot of proteins. Half a pizza gives about 30 grams of protein, and that is (from what I've heard and read) about as much as the body can take up in one go.

The egg-shake is also something I'll keep doing, as it is not only has a lot of 'high quality' proteins, but it also has nutrients and vitamins aplenty.

I usually go to buy groceries after the gym, and got a comment today: "You're always smiling". Well that makes sense, as I usually only go to the store after working out. Some exercise releases the "happy thoughts" and I think I'm on the right track if I'm gaining muscle, loosing fat and at the same time feel good. And the cute girl that works at the store smiled back. :)

Some aerobic exercise

Just finished a meal after going to the gym, for my dose of aerobic exercise. Spent 60 minutes on a running/skiing device and burned close to 700 calories.

I stepped up the level to 10 (been using 9 earlier) and it really made a big difference. About halfway through I felt tired already, and towards the end a woman got on a similar machine just beside me and we started chatting about exercise.

It was a good conversation, but also a bit weird as she at times had a slightly .. surprised/scared face while talking. Maybe she didn't expect having a chat while working out.. after working out and hitting the showers I figured out what it could have been. My face was flushed dark red, so although I talked calmly and had some good points it might have looked like I was mad as I was talking. Funny. :)

Two on, one off

I've started with the new exercise regime now, where 2 days are on, and one day is off. Along with the increased amount of exercise, I'm also doing increases in the amount of weights that are being lifted, so today I increased the arm-related lifting by 5 kilograms.

It feels good to increase the amount of exercise, but I can feel that it is taking a bit of a toll on my work-energy as well. Or maybe that's just because I am eating less calories than I'm using.. not sure.

Think I'm burning around 3000-3500 calories a day now, and consuming around 2000, so each day I'm loosing 100-200 grams of fat. That's a motivation, and it will be nice to see the results after a while.

I don't use a scale, but I can see that the body is getting more toned and muscular, and all-in-all I might not have lost all that much weight, as the muscle mass is increasing.

I started this new exercise/diet thing about 1 year ago and by the summer it should really show. This project is for me to see and feel how it is to be really fit and slim; I've pretty much always been a chubby guy (and happy with that), but you gotta find new things to try..

Maybe I should start eating more green stuff, these days it is very easy to either do noodles+tuna or frozen pizza, but the pre-packed salads are in my opinion a wee bit too expensive, and I'm too lazy/incapable of creating my own salads. They just don't taste as good as the ones you can buy.

I'm also cheating a bit and using something which can be loosely translated as "packaged mouth tobacco" (snus):

which helps keep the mood up when I'm not eating as much as the body would like. I stopped using Snus before going to India and kept off it until about a month after I came back, but then I realized that life is better with Snus. It's kinda like coffee for me. Some known side-effects of Snus is higher blood pressure, but that's not a problem for me, yet. Maybe I'll stop some day if the doctor tells me to.

So, calorie restriction, exercise, lots of proteins, a daily dose of vitamins and Omega 3 is what I'm doing now. And I'll start eating more green stuff, and fiber. It *is* good for the body, so why not.